Soft robots have received an increasing attention due to their advantages of high flexibility and safety for human operators but the fabrication is a challenge. Recently, 3D printing has been used as a key technology to fabricate soft robots because of high quality and printing multiple materials at the same time. Functional soft materials are particularly well suited for soft robotics due to a wide range of stimulants and sensitive demonstration of large deformations, high motion complexities and varied multi-functionalities. This review comprises a detailed survey of 3D printing in soft robotics. The development of key 3D printing technologies and new materials along with composites for soft robotic applications is investigated. A brief summary of 3D-printed soft devices suitable for medical to industrial applications is also included. The growing research on both 3D printing and soft robotics needs a summary of the major reported studies and the authors believe that this review article serves the purpose.
Owing to the increasing interest in the nonvolatile memory devices, resistive switching based on hybrid nanocomposite of a 2D material, molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is explored in this work. As a proof of concept, we have demonstrated the fabrication of a memory device with the configuration of PET/Ag/MoS2-PVA/Ag via an all printed, hybrid, and state of the art fabrication approach. Bottom Ag electrodes, active layer of hybrid MoS2-PVA nanocomposite and top Ag electrode are deposited by reverse offset, electrohydrodynamic (EHD) atomization and electrohydrodynamic (EHD) patterning respectively. The fabricated device displayed characteristic bistable, nonvolatile and rewritable resistive switching behavior at a low operating voltage. A decent off/on ratio, high retention time, and large endurance of 1.28 × 102, 105 sec and 1000 voltage sweeps were recorded respectively. Double logarithmic curve satisfy the trap controlled space charge limited current (TCSCLC) model in high resistance state (HRS) and ohmic model in low resistance state (LRS). Bendability test at various bending diameters (50-2 mm) for 1500 cycles was carried out to show the mechanical robustness of fabricated device.
Advancement in electronic industry has revolutionized the lifestyle of mankind at the cost of leaving adverse effects on the environment due to the use of toxic and nondegradable functional materials abundantly used in various electronic devices. The use of biomaterials in electronic devices with attractive properties is by far the best solution for protecting our environment from hazardous materials without compromising the growth of the electronic industry. Biomaterials are environmentally friendly and biocompatible with the added advantages of easy processing, transparency, flexibility, abundant resources, sustainability, recyclability, and simple extraction. This Review targets the characteristics, advancements, role, limitations, and prospects of using biomaterials as the functional layer of a resistive random-access memory (RRAM) device with a primary focus on the electronic properties of bio-RRAMs. Among the available memory devices, RRAMs have a huge potential to become the nonvolatile memory of the next generation owing to their simple structure, high scalability, and low power consumption. Applications of using biomaterial-based RRAMs have also been discussed including mimicking the human brain, fabricating wearable memory devices, and implanting bio-RRAMs. The motivation behind this work is to promote the use of biomaterials in electronic devices and attract researchers toward a green solution of hazardous problems associated with the electronic industry.
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